2,800

patrons

$18,100

per month

At the top of every episode, we say that “Friends at the Table is an Actual Play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends.” But what’s that mean, and why do we need your help to do it?

Well, just about every week for the last three years, we’ve been using tabletop roleplaying games to tell the sorts of stories that we wanted to see in the world. Over 120 episodes, we’ve explored a fantasy post-post-apocalypse, fought over (and against) the stars, and uncovered the heartbreaking truth behind a war of the gods.

We’ve done all of this in our limited free time and with whatever spare change we can scrape together to buy recording and producing equipment, pay for instrument repairs, renew web services, and purchase RPG books. A lot of you know this, and for a long time, you’ve been asking us for a way to support us in doing this. Now you can.

And the thing is, we don’t just want to keep doing what we’ve already done: We want to do all of it better, and we want to do even more. That’s why we’ve figured out a ton of stuff we’d love to do if you want to help us do it!

You can find out more about what our major stretch goals are over to the right, but I wanted to lay out some of the bigger ones in detail below:

Monthly Clapcasts

A lot of you have told us that you miss the much looser vibe of the first season. Well, once a month, every Patreon subscriber will get access to a special “clapcast” that includes some of our pre- and post-recording banter, any long digressions that need to be cut from the episodes, and yes, of course, our claps. Maybe you’ll be able to tell if we’re getting any better at them.

Tips at the Table

Once we hit our $3,000 stretch goal, we’re going to be launching another bonus podcast: Tips at the Table, a monthly show that answers your questions about playing and running tabletop games! Some of our favorite interactions with you have been answering questions about how we prepare for and play the game, and we want to expand this into something where you can ask us even more specific questions. Let us help!

“Season 4”

During the post-mortem for COUNTER/Weight, Austin mentioned that the next Friends at the Table season was going to be inspired by Bruce Springsteen. Well, in the time since then, that idea has blossomed into something much bigger than a single “season.”

Welcome to Bluff City: A seaside casino town lost in time, where amateur wrestlers dream of making it big and leaving the city behind; where a drama club puts on one last play before leaving for college; where a group of taggers and skaters get into a summer-long prank war with casino security; where small time crooks go on “one last heist” before leaving this rotten city for good; where a group of amateur detectives discovers that there may be some truth to the supernatural myths of this little corner of the mid-Atlantic.

Bluff City is a new setting that we want to explore and build out month by month across numerous games and characters who all share the same world and setting. We’ve always wanted to tell stories in a modern-ish setting, and now we’ve figured out where to do it. Think “Born to Run” meets “Dark City” meets “The Wrestler” meets “Twin Peaks” meets “Fargo” meets… okay, these are a lot of really dope things to be inspired by, I know, but we are very excited about possibly doing this show.

Monthly One Shot Live Stream

Long time listeners of the show know that we’ve bounced between tons of different game systems—we’ve even used ones that members of the crew have developed ourselves! We love trying out new stuff, and as fans, you’ve often sent us games to see if we’d consider playing them. Now, there’s really a way to make that happen.

If you really dig deep and raise $10,000 a month, we’ll be able to dedicate the time needed to do a monthly, subscriber-only one shot live stream. And on top of that, subscribers will vote on what the game we play is!

There’s even more, which you can check out over in our Goals section to the right. And as a reminder: All of this comes on top of our regular weekly show, which isn’t going anywhere.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support. Your kindness, curiosity, and excitement has kept us going over three years, and we can’t wait to do even more with you in the future!

Tiers

The Pal

$1 or more per month ∙ 190 patrons

Access to Clapcast, a monthly compilation of all our time.is claps and any other outtakes. Here’s an opportunity for us to share bits from our out of game moments that usually get cut out of the main show as a thank you for your support!

The Mapmaker

$10 or more per month ∙ 266 patrons

Access to our roll20 character sheets and all of our maps. A backstage look at who hasn’t been keeping track of their gold all season! We usually share the prebuilt maps for major locations, but you’ll see everything: things drawn on the fly, all our tokens, all our character notes.

The Bard

$25 or more per month ∙ 102 patrons

Every month, you’ll receive a small postcard with original art and design by Janine Hawkins and featuring microfiction set in one of the Friends at the Table settings written by Jack de Quidt and Austin Walker.

The Pusher

$50 or more per month ∙ 34 patrons

Every month, receive a behind-the-scenes digital dispatch filled with excerpts from the GM’s notes, original music demos, doodles and scratch notes written by the cast during play, and any other ephemera we can think of!

The Pala-din

$100 or more per month ∙ 9 patrons

After six months of subscribing at this level, and once a year thereafter, we’ll all sign a copy of a system we’ve played (your choice!) and all of the postcards from that year. We’ve never even all been in the same room together, so something signed by all of us is super rare!

Goals

The Friend Exclusive: We'll be releasing two episodes of Bluff City a month! Based on our early recordings, we're all excited to do more of this, and with more support we can make that time!

6 of 7

At the top of every episode, we say that “Friends at the Table is an Actual Play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends.” But what’s that mean, and why do we need your help to do it?

Well, just about every week for the last three years, we’ve been using tabletop roleplaying games to tell the sorts of stories that we wanted to see in the world. Over 120 episodes, we’ve explored a fantasy post-post-apocalypse, fought over (and against) the stars, and uncovered the heartbreaking truth behind a war of the gods.

We’ve done all of this in our limited free time and with whatever spare change we can scrape together to buy recording and producing equipment, pay for instrument repairs, renew web services, and purchase RPG books. A lot of you know this, and for a long time, you’ve been asking us for a way to support us in doing this. Now you can.

And the thing is, we don’t just want to keep doing what we’ve already done: We want to do all of it better, and we want to do even more. That’s why we’ve figured out a ton of stuff we’d love to do if you want to help us do it!

You can find out more about what our major stretch goals are over to the right, but I wanted to lay out some of the bigger ones in detail below:

Monthly Clapcasts

A lot of you have told us that you miss the much looser vibe of the first season. Well, once a month, every Patreon subscriber will get access to a special “clapcast” that includes some of our pre- and post-recording banter, any long digressions that need to be cut from the episodes, and yes, of course, our claps. Maybe you’ll be able to tell if we’re getting any better at them.

Tips at the Table

Once we hit our $3,000 stretch goal, we’re going to be launching another bonus podcast: Tips at the Table, a monthly show that answers your questions about playing and running tabletop games! Some of our favorite interactions with you have been answering questions about how we prepare for and play the game, and we want to expand this into something where you can ask us even more specific questions. Let us help!

“Season 4”

During the post-mortem for COUNTER/Weight, Austin mentioned that the next Friends at the Table season was going to be inspired by Bruce Springsteen. Well, in the time since then, that idea has blossomed into something much bigger than a single “season.”

Welcome to Bluff City: A seaside casino town lost in time, where amateur wrestlers dream of making it big and leaving the city behind; where a drama club puts on one last play before leaving for college; where a group of taggers and skaters get into a summer-long prank war with casino security; where small time crooks go on “one last heist” before leaving this rotten city for good; where a group of amateur detectives discovers that there may be some truth to the supernatural myths of this little corner of the mid-Atlantic.

Bluff City is a new setting that we want to explore and build out month by month across numerous games and characters who all share the same world and setting. We’ve always wanted to tell stories in a modern-ish setting, and now we’ve figured out where to do it. Think “Born to Run” meets “Dark City” meets “The Wrestler” meets “Twin Peaks” meets “Fargo” meets… okay, these are a lot of really dope things to be inspired by, I know, but we are very excited about possibly doing this show.

Monthly One Shot Live Stream

Long time listeners of the show know that we’ve bounced between tons of different game systems—we’ve even used ones that members of the crew have developed ourselves! We love trying out new stuff, and as fans, you’ve often sent us games to see if we’d consider playing them. Now, there’s really a way to make that happen.

If you really dig deep and raise $10,000 a month, we’ll be able to dedicate the time needed to do a monthly, subscriber-only one shot live stream. And on top of that, subscribers will vote on what the game we play is!

There’s even more, which you can check out over in our Goals section to the right. And as a reminder: All of this comes on top of our regular weekly show, which isn’t going anywhere.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support. Your kindness, curiosity, and excitement has kept us going over three years, and we can’t wait to do even more with you in the future!

Recent posts by Friends at the Table

Tiers

The Pal

$1 or more per month ∙ 190 patrons

Access to Clapcast, a monthly compilation of all our time.is claps and any other outtakes. Here’s an opportunity for us to share bits from our out of game moments that usually get cut out of the main show as a thank you for your support!

The Mapmaker

$10 or more per month ∙ 266 patrons

Access to our roll20 character sheets and all of our maps. A backstage look at who hasn’t been keeping track of their gold all season! We usually share the prebuilt maps for major locations, but you’ll see everything: things drawn on the fly, all our tokens, all our character notes.

The Bard

$25 or more per month ∙ 102 patrons

Every month, you’ll receive a small postcard with original art and design by Janine Hawkins and featuring microfiction set in one of the Friends at the Table settings written by Jack de Quidt and Austin Walker.

The Pusher

$50 or more per month ∙ 34 patrons

Every month, receive a behind-the-scenes digital dispatch filled with excerpts from the GM’s notes, original music demos, doodles and scratch notes written by the cast during play, and any other ephemera we can think of!

The Pala-din

$100 or more per month ∙ 9 patrons

After six months of subscribing at this level, and once a year thereafter, we’ll all sign a copy of a system we’ve played (your choice!) and all of the postcards from that year. We’ve never even all been in the same room together, so something signed by all of us is super rare!